September 2021 – Page 3 of 3 – Sonshine's Journal

September 10, 2021September 10, 2021

An Audience with God

Ezekiel 43 Do you meet with God each day? Is your meeting casual or reverent? In Chapter 1, when Ezekiel had his first vision, he was by the River Chebar, and there he fell on his face. In Ezekiel 43, he again falls on his face. When John saw the risen Christ, he too fell on his face.[Rev 1:17] Both show us we dare not be careless and lackadaisical as we spend time in His holy presence. The very presence of God should cause us to stop and consider who He is. He is holy; He is glorious; He is majestic.

When God’s Spirit left the temple, He hovered, but now He enters like the sound of a mighty waterfall, and the earth shone with his glory. When the Spirit of God came upon the disciples, it was with the sound like a mighty rushing wind followed by the tongues of fire. Centuries later John recorded that when he heard the voice of Jesus it was “like the roar of many waters“ [Rev 1:15]

When the Spirit of the Living God enters us we are now as Paul describes: “you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you. God’s temple is holy and you are that temple.” [1Cor 3:16, 17]

As you meet with God, come as a little child in humble adoration.

September 9, 2021September 9, 2021

Ezekiel’s Virtual Reality Tour

Ezekiel 40 Docents help us to visualize what could have been or what will be when visiting a historical site. For example, Ezekiel has been a docent for the captives as a faithful prophet, and he has shown the elders and the people through drama why they are in Babylon. But like then, they and we want to know what lies ahead. So it is time for God’s docent, the radiant angel, to take Ezekiel on a tour of the new Temple to be built, and we have a ringside seat on this tour.

If we were writing this today, we might say that Ezekiel will view this new Temple with all its glory through wearing virtual reality glasses. His tour begins on the mountain of God and he will see a glorious temple beyond description, for our God is glorious and majestic, and his structure will be just as He is. The captives have several years more in Babylon, but God has his men and His instructions ready for when the time is ready. Yet, history reveals that neither Zerubbabel’s Temple nor Herod’s Temple will be anywhere near this glorious, so we look to the future through the eyes of John. He tells us that there will not be a temple in the New Jerusalem, for the Temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. [Rev 21:22]

Are you encouraged and ready to see God’s majesty in all His glory?

September 8, 2021September 8, 2021

When God Unleashes His Fury

Ezekiel 38 As spectators, we watch but find it hard to comprehend the events portrayed here. We have many questions as to who Gog and Magog are. Through the centuries, the biblical authors ask why so many are angry against God’s people? Ezekiel is but the proclaimer, and we are but spectators like at a football game. Yet, God does not spare the graphic details of the “war party” He plans for His enemies. It is Prime Time Net-Flix in vivid detail.

In 2 Kings 6, we read of the story of Elisha’s servant!. When he awoke one morning, he was aghast! He said to Elisha, “Behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city!” He was frightened. Ezekiel 38 is a lot like that exact scenario. Elisha prayed: O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see. So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” [2Kings 6]

Do we pray that same prayer?

Ezekiel paints the picture that will be in the future and the events are frightening! Yet, God is in control, for He is sovereign, and He will place a hedge of protection around His own just like those horses and chariots. God will defeat the enemies, and His people will be protected. We can trust God, for He made a covenant with Abraham long ago, and He will not go back on His promises. He is a covenant keeper.

When God unleashes his fury, will you be sheltered under his wings or experience his wrath?

September 7, 2021September 7, 2021

From Death to Life!

Ezekiel 37 Once Dead; now Alive!

In rereading this chapter, I am reminded of Ephesians 2:1, 5 ” And although you were dead in your offenses and sins..(God) made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved! Paul reminds the Ephesians that they “were dead” but no longer are because of the power of the energizing Holy Spirit that raises the dead to life. Ezekiel had a vivid illustration of how that works.

Imagine standing in Death Valley and seeing the dead and sun-scorched dead bones. Each of us would reply to the Lord, “you know Lord,” regarding his question; can these be resurrected? When the Holy Spirit does His work, it is just like on that day when the tombs were opened, and the dead rose to walk about Jerusalem, testifying to the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. (Matt 27:52)

Like them, we all were dead, sun-scorched, and left to the vultures and animals that God created to cleanse the dead from the land. But, Hallelujah; God does a mighty work that we might stand amazed in His presence. John Newton penned a hymn titled Amazing Grace which captures this chapter:

I once was lost, but now I am found; I once was dead but now am alive.

If this is your truth: Go forth and proclaim this truth!

September 6, 2021September 6, 2021

Sheep need a “Good Shepherd”

Ezekiel 34 From Genesis to Revelation, each author presents a picture of Jesus. In Psalm 23, He is “my” Shepherd; in John 10, He is the “Good” Shepherd. Long before John wrote, Ezekiel paints the Good Shepherd picture in contrast to the self-indulgent false shepherds who did not care for the sheep. They had plundered the weak sheep, which scattered in search of food but instead became food for every wild beast. The Good Shepherd will search for His sheep, and when He finds them, He will take them to the green pastures beside the still waters. [Ps 23]

Centuries later there were false shepherds again, and God’s sheep were wandering. Jesus pronounced judgment on them and reminded them that they would have repented long ago if they had seen the same miracles that Chorazin saw. [Matt 11:21]

Even though the false shepherds refused to yield to God, the Good Shepherd would lay down his life for them one day. The Sovereign Lord knew then and knows now what is happening. He will seek out His sheep and rescue them. He will find them, bandage them, and then they will know He is the Lord. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the Lion of Judah. His Father sees, and He will judge all sin.

Which Shepherd do you follow?

September 5, 2021September 5, 2021

The Fate of the Wicked and the Blessing for Israel.

Ezek 28 Although Ezekiel paints a vivid picture of the enemies of Israel, there is a silver lining in that dark cloud. There will come a day when all of the world will bow its knee, and they will know that He is Lord, Lord of all.

Israel has faced the judgment of God. She rejected Him for the pleasures of sin for a season, but there comes a payment day like all sin. Ezekiel has been telling them that this will be the reward for their iniquity: 70 yrs. of captivity in Babylon. But, this is where there is a silver lining in that dark cloud; after 70 yrs. He will restore them to His land, the Promised Land, and then they will know that He has spoken, He is the Lord.

Where are you wallowing in sin, looking for that day of redemption? God has a promise for you, but it comes when you yield to Him. Then it will be just as the prophet Joel wrote: “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.” [Joel 2:25]

September 4, 2021September 4, 2021

The Righteous One is Spared

Ezekiel 24 Mrs. Ezekiel was to die according to God’s plan. He doesn’t tell us why but Ezekiel obeyed just as God told him to do when she died. She was righteous, unlike Nadab and Abihu, who committed a flagrant sin. Moses told Aaron he could not mourn, and he obeyed. God told God Ezekiel the same thing; you are not to mourn, and he did not. He went about his day just as if it were any other day. Why would God tell us not to mourn over the death of loved ones? Perhaps it is because God’s heart is so broken at the anguish in the heart of the righteous that He removes them lest they live through any more heartache. That is what grace is all about. She had been taken captive, walked thousands of miles to a city unknown to her, saw the unrepentant elders as they listened to her husband, and saw the despair of her people. We really don’t know, but in God’s love, He took her to heaven, and there she sits at the feet of Yahweh. God spared her heart any more anguish. Amid this heartbreak, Ezekiel is told not to mourn, and he obeyed.

How easy is it for us to obey when we can see all of God’s plan, and how hard is it for us to obey even when we do not understand?

September 3, 2021September 3, 2021

Standing, Praying, Repairing

Ezekiel 22 –Jeremiah 5 – Nehemiah 2

How important is prayer today as we see our nation and the people stumbling? Nehemiah returned to the city of Jerusalem and found the walls breached and the people without hope. He gathered the residents to repair the wall, and when the enemies sought to undermine, they gathered together armed to resist. He established a routine to rebuild the wall and completed it in 52 days! Today God is searching for that Nehemiah to repair what is broken spiritually, and it begins by praying for our nation, which is full of the hurt, the needy, and the lost.

God challenged Ezekiel and Jeremiah to go and search for one faithful man to stand in the gap. Paul told the Corinthians that they were the stewards of the mysteries of God. The message has not changed, the method has not changed, but the people’s hearts need to be changed.

Will you and I be found faithful to be that agent of change? Are we standing in the gap of the wall? Are we busy about the business of prayer in our churches? Nehemiah challenged the people to rebuild and they responded

“Let’s begin rebuilding right away” [ Nehemiah 2:18 ]

September 2, 2021September 2, 2021

A Broken Heart and an Ungrateful Spirit

Ezekiel 20 Have you ever chosen a gift only for it to be disregarded? That is how God sees His gift of redemption to the Israelites. He had taken the children of Israel out of bondage to a land flowing with milk and honey. They wanted a king, so He gave them a king. No matter what God gave them, they wanted more and still were ungrateful.

Now it is in the 7th year of captivity, and they were whining; when will this end? In Jerusalem, they had heard Hananiah say two years. Jeremiah reminded Hananiah that God had not sent him. The captivity will last not 2 yrs. but 70 yrs.! So now the elders are sitting before Ezekiel and want to inquire of God what lay ahead. God says, “I will not be inquired of you!” In other words, my heart is broken. The last straw was when you said: “we want to be like the nations, like the people of the world, who serve wood and stone.” [Ezek 20:32]

Have you spurned the gift of salvation that God gave you? Listen to Acts 3:19 “Repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

September 1, 2021September 1, 2021

Bame-shifting

Gen 1 to 18 and Ezekiel 18 “The problem of blame-shifting.”

Theology is the study of God, and today’s lesson is about upside-down theology. From Gen 1 to 18, we learn that what was perfect was destroyed by sin. First, Adam blamed Eve, then Eve blamed the serpent, and so it has gone since time began. Here the elders sat before Ezekiel complaining (maybe in their hearts?) that they were in this fix, meaning in Babylon, because of their father’s sin. Ezekiel asked them just as God asked Eve and then Cain; “what have “YOU” done, not what has your father done. Each is responsible to live righteously or live in sin. You can’t use the thinking of Flip Wilson: “he made me do it.”

Ezekiel told them, “the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.” [Ezek 18:20] We are all responsible for choosing righteousness or wickedness/sin. We all must stand before God alone, and God will not hear our complaint that “it was because of so and so” or “he made me do it.” Ezekiel then points out the beauty of God’s mercy. “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord God. “Therefore, repent and live.” [Ezek 18:32]

May we all stop and thank God that we are not responsible for another’s sin.